Introducing Peanut

Introducing Peanut......born just one week ago and having a wonderful romp in our paddocks.

We have had our little Warrnambool family staying with us this week, so there's been some fun and games.

Can you guess who the winner might have been.....??????

.....and then a visit to the bonfire tonight to check that it was safe.

Our workers have been coming and going all week and doing a great job.

The brickies came this morning to patch up the side bits......

Another burnt tree was removed to allow us to get  maximum sunlight on our solar panels that will be positioned on the new shed ( when it is built).

Some bits of loveliness in the garden at the moment.......

.....and another bit of human loveliness!

Dad had a cataract removed from his eye today. The surgery went well. Thank you Raylene. We appreciate everything you do for Mum and Dad.

Strawberry love

Lots happening here today but I couldn't resist beginning with this........

 .......Flynn sent this to Bill to put on his shed!
Precious boy.

The glorious rain we had last Wednesday night resulted in some water coming through the temporary wall.

This part was under the library shelving, ( not sure why we did that now ) so some  shoving and lifting and yanking was required. Gosh carpet is heavy! The books were lifted down....

.....and the shelves were jacked up to allow some air through.
Nothing good to be said about the whole process except that it all got dusted for the first time since goodness knows when!!!!  
The sun and wind from yesterday dried the carpet beautifully.

Amy and Bill spent some time on Saturday putting up some temporary and not- so- temporary fencing so that the dogs could come out for a play.

They did such a great job.
Trip was puffed after 2 laps of the garden.....

..... and Toby didn't lift his nose from the ground for 4 hours!! We didn't get a photo of him....he was too busy hunting!

One of Amy's customers from the bank arrived with two polystyrene boxes filled with tubestock from a nursery where she works.
My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I saw them all.
One lot is called gold dust wattle, a low growing shrub often used for screening and colour in Winter. Perfect!
The others are a mixture of ruby saltbush and nodding saltbush. They grow to a metre and have red berries in Autumn. Perfect again!
Thank you Anne. They are most appreciated.


This morning the boys arrived at 7 and set about constructing the scaffolding.....

......so that they could get into the roof space.
Mind you I have no idea what they're doing up there, but I might even go up and have a look myself tomorrow......or not.

And the tank arrived this morning too. It will receive rain from the shed which is still not up so we needed to put some water in the bottom of it to stop it blowing away.

And finally some pretty flower photos, taken while trying to avoid being swooped......still!!!

The last flower is a leucadendron.....I really like that one. Can't wait until it grows bigger so that I can pick some stems to put inside.

Tools down and wormy chestnut

A great hive of activity here yesterday. Bill even swept the concrete after the boys had gone home.

And this morning they arrived at 7 ready for another big day.

However, we had 22mm of glorious rain here last night and after only 20 minutes of work, it looked like this..........

  

....so they abandoned tools and headed off and will return on Monday. Way too muddy, sticky, dirty and dangerous with electrical equipment.

 Note... The little pile of off cuts you can see behind the blue ladder are left overs that Bill has been eyeing off!!! to go in his shed !!!! to do who knows what!!! 

Our little willy wagtail family have also abandoned their building plans! It must have been too noisy/busy  for them and they've set up in front of the granny flat instead. We miss them flitting around out there.

We visited a floor showroom in Glen Iris yesterday. We are planning to have a timber floor in our new room so we have brought home some reading material to mull over.

We think we may choose wormy chestnut!!!

 It's a mix of all sorts of timber from the forests of south eastern Victoria. The timber has often been affected by fire, drought and insect attack and therefore has beetle marks, pin holes, squiggly worm marks and deep red veins caused by fire.

Perfect!!!( got to love that name too!)

 

On the way home we called in at my favourite shop  and I bought this teapot with it's lid missing for $8.

I went outside with my big umbrella when we got home ( so that I wouldn't get swooped) and picked another bunch of freesias to put in it.

 The teapot has a pretty pattern around the rim.

And a bunch of white artificial tulips for $10.

This is the view from our kitchen window this afternoon ..... raindrops and all. 

Tonight we are having salmon parcels with lemon and rosemary......

....so I'd better get cracking seeing I'm supposed to be cooking. 

Hope you all got some rain last night too.

Construction has begun

 The house has been closed up all day today while we were away, but as soon as we came inside we could smell the sweet perfume of freesias.
 I dug a clump of these up from Mum and Dad's and brought them back here to plant. The clump gets bigger each year. I remember as a little girl picking bunches of them in the old tennis court that used to be next to our house.
 I adored the smell then and I adore it just as much now.

The front roundabout garden is a mass of mauve star flowers.

This apricoty-ish daffodil is one of the last flowering ones of ours. Now we have the messy bit waiting for the foliage to die down before we cut them back.

The concrete slab is down for the willy wagtails!

Beats me how they are all going to fit in there but we know there is more wall work to come. He's not looking that happy about it all though!

And we are starting to think that it must be  nearly time for these two to head off.
The swooping  from their parents is driving us crazy.

Construction has begun. Mmmmm.......doesn't look anything like what I've got in my head!

The blue skies have been glorious here .........

We expect our views of the borrowed landscape will change when the sheds go up.
In the meantime, our views to the south look like this.....

The evenings have been so calm and mild.
I think that might all be about to change!

On this day.....

On this day in September last year, it looked like this.......

And today, it looks like this........

Our beautiful flowering cherry is struggling, but I refuse to give up on it.
If you look closely there are some green shoots and white blossom on the branches closest to the house and a few others scattered around that you can't see in the photo. That's a good enough reason to keep hoping it will rally around eventually.
You will also notice that the pots and watering cans are all strewn out across the back of the house. It has been the potting shed/shed along there for the last 7 months......very handy anyway!

More tree planting today. 
To be perfectly honest we have run out of places to put the last few, including the manna gums for the visiting koalas  (in my dreams). We will see what we are left with when the sheds are finally up.

The workers will be back tomorrow to turn this.....

....into who knows what! We are very excited about it though, whatever it is!

Bill has been mowing the rose garden paths today. They all stand out because it's so lovely and green.
The magpie sitting on top of the arbour is the swooper.
 Bill came in with a piece taken out of his head today....the little bit that is exposed at the back under his cap! How the heck could the magpie even find that bit of skin????

I really wanted to pick some freesias but now I'm too scared to go out there!
Hope you all get to enjoy some sun over the next couple of days.